Hi - ive made the VGA 14 bit resistor network which worked well (though my OLD SCRAP monitored died a couple of days later - voltages all seem < 0.7v so dont think it was a problem) and im wondering about which cpu core the interrupt code is running on. Im assuming core 1 but is there any means to decide which core to run the ISR on?

This of course leaves the other main core free to run the application code so im assuming that using pure ISR mode wont be a problem to generate higher resolutions so long as the application runs on the other CPU core even if its paused whist in ISR (unsure thats correct or not) ?

Is it possible to rotate screen by 90 deg ? to left or right?

how to export .h 3d model as the one from the example the thinker.h . I i tried with a cmd tool but nothing from the side of eps32 also i tried a way via Euphoria/Blender but again no luck. If eny one can help i will be grateful.

It seems, that in the schematic the pins of R2 and R3 are swapped accidentially (or in the example :-) ).
Schematic says R2 -> pin 13 and R3 -> pin 12, example says R2 -> pin 12 and R3 -> pin 13.
Should be clarified/corrected.

I'm trying to compile the VGAHelloWorld example, but every time I try to upload it, the Arduino IDE just fails.
I'm using Arduino IDE 1.8.10

`In file included from c:\users\varga\documents\arduino\libraries\bitluni_esp32lib\src\i2s\DMABufferDescriptor.h:13:0,
from c:\users\varga\documents\arduino\libraries\bitluni_esp32lib\src\i2s\i2s.h:23,
from C:\Users\varga\Documents\Arduino\libraries\bitluni_ESP32Lib\src/VGA/VGA.h:14,
from C:\Users\varga\Documents\Arduino\libraries\bitluni_ESP32Lib\src/VGA/VGA14BitI.h:13,
from C:\Users\varga\Documents\Arduino\libraries\bitluni_ESP32Lib\src/ESP32Lib.h:3,
from C:\Users\varga\Documents\Arduino\libraries\bitluni_ESP32Lib\examples\VGAHelloWorld\VGAHelloWorld.ino:6:

c:\users\varga\documents\arduino\libraries\bitluni_esp32lib\src\i2s\DMABufferDescriptor.h: In static member function static void** DMABufferDescriptor::allocateDMABufferArray(int, int, bool, long unsigned int):

c:\users\varga\documents\arduino\libraries\bitluni_esp32lib\src\tools\log.h:25:59: error: exception handling disabled, use -fexceptions to enable

#define ERROR(a) {Serial.println((a)); delay(3000); throw 0;};

c:\users\varga\documents\arduino\libraries\bitluni_esp32lib\src\i2s\DMABufferDescriptor.h:34:4: note: in expansion of macro ERROR

ERROR(Not enough DMA memory);

Multiple libraries were found for ESP32Lib.h
Used: C:\Users\varga\Documents\Arduino\libraries\bitluni_ESP32Lib
exit status 1
Error compiling for board ESP32 Dev Module.`

Hey bitluni

What's the best way to contact you via direct/private message/email?

thanks

Andrew Stuart

Dear Matthias, thank you for all your work. You have been an inspiration for my interest in microcontrollers.

The part of your code that uses DMA interrupt works if used alone, but crashes when using SPIFFS and/or wifi, which is a big limitation for their use.
Your appreciation of the problem in #31 ("interrupt based version of the driver [...] needs a lot of cpu power") was no spot-on this time.
I tested it this way: initialized/connected SPIFFS or Wifi (with server) before vga.init. The microcontroller was stable (occasional crash) until a request to the server was done, or SPIFFS was accessed File root = FILESYSTEM.open("/","r");.
Then, an exception was raised: Guru Meditation Error: Core 1 panic'ed (Cache disabled but cached memory region accessed)
The exception decoder showed that flash was being accessed (through SPI) (also happened in wifi usage, without SPIFFS), and the conflict was in the static function interrupt of the I2S object.
All documentation of the error pointed to lack of use of IRAM attribute for functions and DRAM for consts.

I tracked this error to several problems:

• Interrupt clearance through the i2s object was not safe i2s.int_clr.val = i2s.int_raw.val;.
• A call to a member function was not safe (tested several options).

I worked out a solution, which is implemented in pull request #37.
Unfortunately wifi usage caused losing vSync and the screen needed some seconds to recover.
Thus, I further worked on a solution, to make hSync and vSync independent of the rendering routine in the interrupt, which is implemented in pull request #38. (You can ignore the previous pull request, which is there to provide you with understanding of the changes)
This code suffers only almost imperceptible glitches during wifi usage.

I hope that you find these changes interesting and worthwhile.

By the way, VGA6BitI had an error in

Great project.

I order the board and I cant wait to start playing with it.
in my project, I will need very big fonts (5 numbers will fill all the screen).
I have to create a new file in the ressources but for the moment i don't know how.
any suggestion will be appreciated.

thank you

Arduino have a library for Monochrome display like OLED called U8G2. U8G2 have wide variety of fonts, can I use U8G2 Font with this library.

U8G2 Font List

More about U8G2 font

Hello,
VGAWiFiTextTerminal demo works fine,
until it won't respond anymore, vga stuff still works, screen is ok, but server do not respond,
i have static ip, connection to my router is ok.
where to look for a problem?

I love this library!!! Thank you!!

It is much easier for me to experiment with. So of course I used it to continue an experiment I have of dumping Serial debug text to various displays when using the Blynk IoT App

Anyhow... the story is here -

https://community.blynk.cc/t/my-attempts-at-transferring-blynk-print-to-various-displays/21649/37

But the issue/question I have is how to vga.print(char(<ASCII value>)) and actually get the character and not the decimal value?

I also noticed some strange buffer dumps or something (that ended up showing the ASCII text from before) when printing things like this vga.print(uptime + ", "); as in my example in the link.

Yes, I know I am using this library in a strange way... but hey it sorta worked :)

Hi there,

I was trying to use VGA library for a battery powered ESP32 which has a deep sleep button.

It seems as result of I2S interrupt the device goes to deep sleep but wakes up immediately.

Is there any way to disable I2S interrupt just before we go to sleep mode?

Thanks a lot.

I used your example code VGAHelloWorld, added some Serial messages and tried it. They were printed until vga.init(...); the next messages are not shown and further code is not executed either.
I also tried using other pins.
I'm using the Wemos ESP32 (small blue one), that you also showed in your video.

Thank you for helping!

I am trying to use a SPIFFS filesystem in conjunction with your vga library. If I do all of my SPIFFS calls before doing vga.init() everything seems to work fine. However, if I try to do any SPIFFS operations after vga.init() I get crashes and core dumps

I am using pins 21, 22, 18, 19, 4, 5, 23, 15 for VGA

For example, the following code fails, but if I move the vga.init call as indicated, it all works fine

if(!SPIFFS.begin(true)){
Serial.println("An Error has occurred while mounting SPIFFS");
return;
}

Serial.println("About to call vga.init");
vga.init(vga.MODE400x300, redPin, greenPin, bluePin, hsyncPin, vsyncPin);

unsigned char * ram = nas.ram;
File file = SPIFFS.open("/lollipop.bin");
long len = file.size();
file.read(ram + 0x1000, len);
file.close();

// <-- move vga.init call to here and it works fine -->

by "fails" I mean the arduino serial console reports:

About to call vga.init
I2S TX
Guru Meditation Error: Core 1 panic'ed (Cache disabled but cached memory region accessed)
Guru Meditation Error: Core 1 panic'ed (IllegalInstruction). Exception was unhandled.
Memory dump at 0x400f53d0: bad00bad bad00bad bad00bad

I don't want to be rash and call this a "bug" but I'd be interested in any theories of why your vga library would interact badly with SPIFFS

thanks.

Neal.

If you display a QR code on the screen, simply pointing an iPhone/iPad camera at it will scan the QR code - no app needed.

If the qr code contains a URL then it will ask the iPhone user and open the URL.

You could point that URL to a link local address https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Link-local_address like http://bitluni.local here is the QR code for http://bitluni.local which I made just using an online QR code generator https://imgur.com/MXRkYSV - try pointing your phone camera at it! (update: Actually I'm not sure if iPhones can access .local addresses, I'll have to check. update2: checked, .local addresses work OK on iPhone)

The link local named address (http://esp32fs.local) technique is seen here: https://github.com/espressif/arduino-esp32/blob/master/libraries/WebServer/examples/FSBrowser/FSBrowser.ino I believe it is done via ESPmDNS.h

You can then serve a page from the esp32 to the iphone and use websockets to send keystrokes from the iPhone to the esp32.

If you got really fancy you could actually send touch gestures like swipes from the phone to the esp32 to give the bitluni graphics a touch/swipe interface.

I don't know if Android camera is able to scan QR codes.

Taking it even further, you could send sounds from the esp32 to the phone web page to give sound output. Or as a game control input - multiple people could connect this way and play party games.

By the way, using QR codes is also a good way to send your YouTube audience to your Tindie page :-)

Update - sorry I see here you are already sending input from phone keyboard - so it's not a new idea https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJ68fRff5_k

I seem to recall you saying somewhere that this does not work with psram is that correct?

There is a mistake in this line and the next. It should be:
return backBuffer[y][x >> 1] >> 4;

Hello. I've been watching your videos and I've decided to buy an ESP32 and a parallel ILI9341 display since it seems that ESP32 is the only microcontroller fast enough to drive a full 320x240x16bit@60fps display. I would like to use your I2S interface code and the DMA buffer code, but my project is going to be licensed under the MIT license which is incompatible with your ShareAlike license. Could you please give me an MIT license for this piece of code? I would also be very thankful if you could also give me instructions on how to drive my ILI9341 display with that piece of code. I'm thinking of using a scanline buffer rather than a framebuffer too and that requires very precise timing to prevent screen tearing.

Thank you.
Best regards,
Zvoc

I experienced a noticeable jitter in the image which i thought may be resolved when i put a cheap VGA->HDMI adaptor directly on the prototype board screw terminal VGA connector. It didn't resolve it though i was sure it wasnt a sync/clock problem as described in the videos.

What eventually resolved it was when i purchased a small pack of 8 snap shut ferrite cores from Amazon with an 3mm tube down the centre. I put them on all the colour digital lines bunching a few wires together, then one on the three DAC output RGB lines, two on the USB power line (one at each end) and one around the H & V sync and the jitter has now gone.

Obviously it was picking up some RF interference from local power supplies or a noisy mains device which is why lots of devices have internal metal shielding.

Hello,
i've made block for ardublock for programming the vga
i will publish when it's debug (it s in french and english, the screen is in french)

and i ve made an app to have direct link in arduino to the sprite editor

unzip in arduino/tools
SpriteEditor.zip

hello,
just for information
there is some VGA connecteur maybe easier and quicker


i don't know where to post his information so i make an issue

Hi, it seems you most recently committed some composite stuff but when I look at Composite.cpp you still use the parallel output mode.

How to connect all the pins used in parallel mode to a composite video connector ?

Thanks a lot for the lib.

Unrelated: maybe adding labels to issue, like [Question] would be useful.

Hi,

Im trying to get 3bit work with WROOM32 chip, and i get no video (hello world code).. tryed some commom resolutions with no success, checked cable and pinnout.. dunno what else i can do.. please help! Thank you very much

Following the line of modes requiring low-memory I have implemented a text-only mode.
It can use fonts already available.
It is a "monochrome" mode like 1-bit, meaning that it can be used as pure monochrome (connect only 3 pins: signal-hsync-vsync) or be used for a dual color screen (palette of two colors) (connect 5 pins).

I tried a lot of routines and the display works fine. But only this program, the IP address generated by the phone connection: 192.168.4.1 cannot be connected. The display has been shown to connect to WiFi and generate an IP address, and the phone is connected to the same WiFi. However, the page cannot be opened.
I hope I can get your help, thank you.

Are there going to be games like on the composite version?

Since the VGA is using practically the whole amount of ram on a high resolutions I wonder if the lib can utilize the WROVER additional PSRAM which it have, instead of using the normal RAM?

hi, is there a manual or tool for creating a font?
I need to add the Cyrillic alphabet, but I can’t understand how

Maybe somebody has already fiddled with a 6-bit variant using 2 GPIO pins per (R,G,B) channel, this would greatly simplify the resistor ladder (only one resistor for each GPIO pin) yet offer 4 color depths per channel for a total of 64 colors. Asking because the 3-bit variant is not sufficient for showing text mode art, yet the 14-bit variant has considerable more requirements for a beginning electronics enthousiast that wants to get started with VGA based projects.

Keep up the great work, loving this library!

You have to connect the VGA cable after the ESP turns on.
If I am connecting the VGA cable and then powering on the ESP I will not get signal but if I let the ESP boot and then connect the VGA cable I will get a signal.

Hello,
great job, it's an awesome librarie.
i arrived to display the thinker and the venus just by connecting the rgb pin and vsync, hsync
i would like to display my own model
i know how to produce stl or obj file of my 3dmodel
but i don' know to transforme them in vertices.
which software could i use to do it ? thanks a lot

Hello.
I am trying the standard way of working with threads, but seems like I cant make it hapen.
Is there a way to make it work in a thread ?

void setup()
{
	xTaskCreatePinnedToCore(
		Task1code,   /* Task function. */
		"Task1",     /* name of task. */
		286720,       /* Stack size of task */
		NULL,        /* parameter of the task */
		1,           /* priority of the task */
		&Task1,      /* Task handle to keep track of created task */
		0 );          /* pin task to core 0 */
	delay( 500 );
}

void Task1code( void * pvParameters )
{
	
	//Serial.println( xPortGetCoreID() );
	vga = new VGA3BitI();
	vga->setFrameBufferCount( 2 );
	//initializing the graphics mode
	vga->init( vga->MODE640x400, redPin, greenPin, bluePin, hsyncPin, vsyncPin );
	//setting the font
	vga->setFont( Font6x8 );
	//clearing with white background

	vga->clear( vga->RGB( 0xffffff ) );
	//text position
	vga->setCursor( 10, 10 );
	//black text color no background color
	vga->setTextColor( vga->RGB( 0 ) );
	//show the remaining memory
	vga->print( "free memory: " );
	vga->print( ( int )heap_caps_get_free_size( MALLOC_CAP_DEFAULT ) );
	//draw the logo
	//bitluni( 150, 60, 20 );
	delay( 200 );

	for( ;;)
	{
		vga->clear( 0 );
		drawMenu();
		vga->show();
	}
}

Dear Matthias,
I am working in refactoring several parts to ease code comprehension, increase modularity, and allow more flexibility for expanding the library.
All my suggested changes are explained in detail in the commit messages in the "advanced_redesign" branch of my fork (commits starting from "Graphics class redesign" to "In ESP32Lib.h exclude old composite video modes"):
https://github.com/Martin-Laclaustra/martin-laclaustra_ESP32Lib/tree/advanced_redesign

I am not creating a pull request for this until you can look into it and agree that it is a step forward.

I started with the Graphics class, but I am going to visit other classes as well. I aim to keep all changes ordered (one class at a time) to help understanding what is going on in the code.
I needed to start this refactoring because before, the structure was holding back development of new modes that I have been preparing.
Also, it took me some effort to understand the overall design and I would like to clear the path for other collaborators that want to contribute (some documenting tasks are also planned).

So far, the modes I developed were modular (independent patches) and fully compatible with the current status of your master branch.
This refactoring is based on my "advanced" branch, which is your master branch with all my patches merged in.
Until you can review and comment on the specific changes, anyone can use and/or test the new modes by downloading the branch from my repository:
git clone -b advanced https://github.com/Martin-Laclaustra/martin-laclaustra_ESP32Lib.git
I will go on with new modes in the redesigned branch, that will also be available and functional to anyone who want to use it:
git clone -b advanced_redesign https://github.com/Martin-Laclaustra/martin-laclaustra_ESP32Lib.git

Regards,
Martin

I followed you step to build an arduino ide environment for ESP32VGA, and I got this error when I try to run helloworld prog. Now I have no idea how to fix it. Could you please tell me how to loacte the source of this error. Thank you for your help in advance.

In file included from C:\Users\MECHREV.X8TI\Documents\Arduino\libraries\bitluni_ESP32Lib\src\I2S\I2S.h:18:0,

                 from C:\Users\MECHREV.X8TI\Documents\Arduino\libraries\bitluni_ESP32Lib\src\I2S\I2S.cpp:12:

E:\Program Files (x86)\Arduino\hardware\arduino-esp\esp32/tools/sdk/include/soc/soc/i2s_struct.h:458:18: error: 'i2s_dev_t I2S0', declared using anonymous type, is used but never defined [-fpermissive]

 extern i2s_dev_t I2S0;

                  ^

E:\Program Files (x86)\Arduino\hardware\arduino-esp\esp32/tools/sdk/include/soc/soc/i2s_struct.h:457:3: note: 'typedef volatile struct<anonymous> i2s_dev_t' does not refer to the unqualified type, so it is not used for linkage

 } i2s_dev_t;

   ^

E:\Program Files (x86)\Arduino\hardware\arduino-esp\esp32/tools/sdk/include/soc/soc/i2s_struct.h:459:18: error: 'i2s_dev_t I2S1', declared using anonymous type, is used but never defined [-fpermissive]

 extern i2s_dev_t I2S1;

                  ^

E:\Program Files (x86)\Arduino\hardware\arduino-esp\esp32/tools/sdk/include/soc/soc/i2s_struct.h:457:3: note: 'typedef volatile struct<anonymous> i2s_dev_t' does not refer to the unqualified type, so it is not used for linkage

 } i2s_dev_t;

   ^

exit status 1

Hi,

previously i used FabGL for some VGA display experiments. There it was straightforward for me to display a bitmap graphic (converted to a char array).
With ESP32Lib i am not really aware how to deal with color bitmaps, how to convert them to the right format (want to use 6 bits) and so on. There seems to be no example for that and the source code is the best documentation i can get.

Any hints or examples where i can see how to deal with color bitmaps?

Thanks.

Regards, Thorsten

You pose the problem here:

DMABufferDescriptor *currentDmaBufferDescriptor = (DMABufferDescriptor *)REG_READ(I2S_OUT_EOF_DES_ADDR_REG(staticthis->i2sIndex));
staticthis->dmaBufferDescriptorActive = ((uint32_t)currentDmaBufferDescriptor - (uint32_t)staticthis->dmaBufferDescriptors)/sizeof(DMABufferDescriptor);

staticthis is just a this pointer I prepared to be used in a static function.
Also in that code I assume (I know because I create it so in the same source file) that descriptors are in an array block. This might be assuming too much if we want to implement a more generic code.

I would implement updating dmaBufferDescriptorActive in i2s.cpp, and I would search for the pointer through the linked list (after doing some timing measurements - we do not want to bog the ISR), to avoid assuming the block layout.

I could prepare some draft code for that if you are interested.

Hi.

I am using esp32lib in a ZX spectrum emulator (https://github.com/rampa069/ZX-ESPectrum) and it works fine in 3 and 14 bits. but when in 6 bits (dont need the 14 bits and RAM memory is a needed resource) seems that the osd is not working at all. The emulation only uses init,clear and dotfast, the osd uses rect, and print. Are all the primitives working in 6bit?

Thanks in advance.

Quaternions require less computation to rotate than matrices and have no real drawbacks. It will make the transformation in your 3D engine even faster. They are a little unintuitive to use API-wise, but that can be fixed with Quaternion to / from Euler methods.

Possible to add texture mapping?

Hello,
i've seen you're exemple with VGANoFrameBuffer
it work perfectly.

is it possible to mixe it with wifi connection and
juste :
const int redPin =
const int greenPin =
const int bluePin =
const int hsyncPin =
const int vsyncPin =

i don't arrived to mixe all them together.
thanks a lot

The VGA font here looks much more readable than the Commodore font currently used.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5c27-y5tm4

What would I need to do to display with a VGA font set?

thanks

Not a problem, but can we still use some SPI channel, using vga 14 bits, without sacrificing performance?

Colors are great, but sometimes increasing the number of possible tones is preferable to changing hue.
I implemented ( #46 ) a solution to display 55 (or 256 if a voltage divider is used) levels of grey, or the same number of color tones of a particular hue depending on the combination of vga channels connected to the output pin.
This solution works connecting only 3 pins.

I'm working on a project that involves drawing a bunch of pixels at once. I ahve looked through waht documentation I can find and the examples. The problem is drawing abunch of single points in a row is very slow. Is there a way to feed the library an array of pixels or soemthing, so it will draw them all all at one? or is the best solution to try and compute them into a combination of rects and lines and draw those?

Hi,

I'm trying to use esp32 vga with ir remote receiver but i get a weird problem..

IR receiver works fine, until i use two or more vga.print commands and it stop updating ir signals.

IR library is: <IRremoteESP8266.h>

Thanks for any help!

Hello.
1st of all : AWESOME WORK !!!
I would like to ask about this schematic: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/bitluni/ESP32Lib/master/Documentation/schematic3bit.png

• Is it possible to use other pins for R G B ?
  ( like for instance pin 25 for G, pin 32 for B and 33 for R ? )

Your VGA-Lib is pure wizardry!
I am trying to change the resolution while the system is running (using setResolution).
But it does not change the resolution it self and seems to allocate new frameBuffers - which causes the ESP32 to crash after 2 calls.
It would be nice to have the possibility to change the Y-resolution e.g. switch between MODE400x300 and MODE 400x150. ("hires/no-back-buffer" or "lowres/with-back-buffer")
Is this possible? Or can you give me a clue how to implement this.
As I understood from reading the code the I2S really pumps directly the content of the active frameBuffer to the pins (including the sync-signals).
Keep up the good work!
Gunter

I can only get OTA working when using VGA3BitI, the interupt vesion of the driver, but want to use the VGA3Bit high performance driver so the CPU doesn't have to do much. Anyone know whats going on

I updated PR #47 with code to produce color composite signals.
Drawing on the canvas is slow but colors are bright and nice!
NTSC color works well in all TVs I checked (CRT and LCD), through DAC or through R2R.
PAL color works in CRT TVs. Maybe the code needs to be reviewed because I hacked the formula to get the right colors. In LCD TV only green and blue appeared. PAL at the programmed frequency did not always work (no image) with my toy ladder. It should be tested with your hardware. However, a lower frequency produced PAL colors in my ladder (see example), although the frequency is too low and vertical black bars appear.

Some projects only need black and white displays or only have such. It would be nice to have one.

Hi,
I am using an AZ-Delivery ESP32 DevkitC (ESP-WROOM-32) and tried out the 14Bit VGA.
The examples VGADemo14Bit, VGASprites and VGA3DEngine are working well so far, but when i try to set a higher resolution, the ESP32 runs into a boot loop caused by an unhandeled exception:

Guru Meditation Error: Core  1 panic'ed (StoreProhibited). Exception was unhandled.
Core 1 register dump:
PC      : 0x400d12c7  PS      : 0x00060f30  A0      : 0x800d1328  A1      : 0x3ffb1e60  
A2      : 0x00000258  A3      : 0x00000640  A4      : 0x00000000  A5      : 0x3ffb8484  
A6      : 0x000000ae  A7      : 0x3ffb81cc  A8      : 0x00000000  A9      : 0x3ffb1e40  
A10     : 0x00000000  A11     : 0x00000001  A12     : 0x00000000  A13     : 0x00000003  
A14     : 0x00000003  A15     : 0x00060823  SAR     : 0x00000000  EXCCAUSE: 0x0000001d  
EXCVADDR: 0x00000000  LBEG    : 0x400014fd  LEND    : 0x4000150d  LCOUNT  : 0xffffffff  

Backtrace: 0x400d12c7:0x3ffb1e60 0x400d1325:0x3ffb1e90 0x400d1335:0x3ffb1eb0 0x400eb7dd:0x3ffb1ed0 0x400eb61b:0x3ffb1ef0 0x400eb5fe:0x3ffb1f10 0x400d23bc:0x3ffb1f30 0x400d1385:0x3ffb1f50 0x400d2d2b:0x3ffb1fb0 0x400874a9:0x3ffb1fd0

What do i have to do to get higher resolutions? My intention was to use 800x600 for a project, at least 640x480, but currently i don't know how to get those modes work.
Any ideas/hints/solutions?

Regards, Thorsten